Finally a use for urine. Before you dismiss this as disgusting, just think for a moment about the facts. Individuals produce one to two litres a day. Collectively, people produce over 10 billion litres of urine every day. To treat urine in our water supply is very energy intensive. Plus, there’s a lot of it to go around ;)
Shanwen Tao, Rong Lan and John Irvine have come up with a use for urine- convert it to energy. The team have been developing a fuel cell that can produce electricity directly from urine. The urine (more specifically urea) is a great alternative to hydrogen or methanol, the substances currently used to generate energy in fuel cells.
Watch this space – urine could be the renewable material of choice for the future.
(Spotted on Gizmodo)
Katherine Hui is currently the Social site editor at Green Thing, a web-based public service in London that inspires people to lead greener lives through creative content.
Before this, she worked as the Development Manager at Social Innovation Camp, an organization that encourages people to use web and mobile-based technology to mobilise social change. She oversaw 300 ideas submission and helped build 20 prototypes – five of which have gone on to get further funding or investment.
Katherine’s came over to the UK form Canada in 2007 for an MSc program at the London School of Economics. Before arriving in London, she managed a small environmental start-up in Vancouver called the Canadian Climate Change Alliance.
Katherine is football mad. She is a loyal supporter of Arsenal FC, plays for Islington Borough Ladies FC and coaches for Gunners in Islington in her spare time. Her second favourite hobby is kite surfing and she can sometimes be found chasing the wind.
